LION – Review

Dev Patel stars in LION. Photo credit: Mark Rogers; © Long Way Home Productions 2015

LION tells the dramatic true story of Saroo Brierley, who as a five-year-old boy from a small Indian village becomes lost and alone in Kolkata, before being adopted by an Australian couple. As a young adult, Saroo began a seemingly impossible search for this birth mother and the remote village where he was born, with the help of a then-new technology called Google Earth.

Dev Patel, best known to audiences for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, stars as the grown Saroo and delivers a powerful performance. Patel’s performance and the amazing true story itself are the greatest strength of LION. Director Garth Davis opts for a chronological approach in telling Saroo’s story. The choice makes LION often feel like two movies, with differing tones and differing stars. Although Patel acts his heart out in the second half as the grown Saroo and young Sunny Pawar, who plays five-year-old version of him, is completely charming in the first half, the film is not perfect and lifted mostly by its true story basis.

Five-year-old Saroo (Pawar) lives in a tiny village with his impoverished mother, older brother and baby sister in a one-room hut on a dusty street. His father is gone, and the family struggles to survive, with his warm-hearted mother Kamla (Priyanka Bose) working in a quarry and his older brother Guddu (Abhishek Bharate) scrambling to make money anywhere he can. Despite their extreme poverty, the family is loving and close, although their hard-knock life means young Saroo is more street-wise than a five-year should be. Lively, outgoing Saroo begs his beloved brother to take him along one night, as the brother works the trains stations, by searching empty trains for forgotten items or even just food. When Saroo grows sleepy, his brother settles him on a station bench, telling him to wait for his return. However, when Saroo awakes, his brother is nowhere to be seen, and the little boy boards a train to look for him. Still sleepy, he lays down on a seat and later awakes to find the empty train moving. Trapped and alone, Saroo arrives days later in Kolkata, where the little boy, who speaks only Hindi, can’t even communicate with the Bengali-speaking locals. Saroo doesn’t know his last name, no one can locate his tiny village on local maps, and he finds himself alone in the big city.

The first half of the film has the boy coping with an array of challenges facing India’s poor and its homeless children. There is a strong feeling of Dickens to Saroo’s harrowing experiences, as the lost boy dodges dangers like child predators who snatch children sleeping in the train station, and a woman who seems kindly when she takes him in but harbors a plan to exploit him. Saroo eventually is lucky enough to make it to an orphanage. The orphanage is still a rough place but it does lead to his adoption by a kindly, financially comfortable Australian couple, Sue (Nicole Kidman) and John Brierley (David Wenham). The adoption changes his life completely.

In his new home, Saroo flourishes, while another Indian boy adopted by the couple struggles. The contrast illustrates both the far-reaching impact of early life and differing temperaments. Saroo is the good son and everything his adoptive parents could want, earning good grades and turning into a fine young adult, while his adoptive brother sinks into drugs and dysfunction. Yet after successfully launching on an adult life, complete with pretty girlfriend (Rooney Mara), the completely Westernized Saroo suddenly becomes obsessed with finding his original family, relying on his few childhood memories and the new technology Google Earth.

Despite Patel’s valiant efforts, as well as those of Nicole Kidman and David Wenham as his adoptive parents, the film feels a bit forced in its second half, where the seemingly happy young man who is poised for success, suddenly becomes obsessed with finding his first home. Actually, the first half of the film is the better movie, as it has a stronger dramatic arc and more uncertainty, and aided by an appealing young actor as Saroo. Director Davis tries to add some extra drama to the grown Saroo’s story with photographic fireworks but it helps little, and only Patel’s performance lifts it at all. The story revives some of its earlier energy and drama, when Saroo finally returns to his native village, walking dusty streets that evoke long-buried memories, searching for the faces of his beloved mother and older brother.

LION concludes with the obligatory footage of the real Saroo and family, adoptive and birth, and real locations. It ends the film on an emotionally satisfying note but also underscores that the film’s true strength is in its true story basis.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars